May 2, 2002

BLACKSBURG, Va - The Virginia Tech men's tennis team will return to the NCAA Tournament after a one-year absence on Sat., May 11 when the Hokies travel to Knoxville, Tenn. to play No. 23 North Carolina (19-5) at 8 a.m. in the first round. The first and second round matches are being played at the UT Varsity Center and are hosted by the University of Tennessee. The Hokies' Saber Kadiri also was selected to take part in the NCAA Individual Singles National Tournament.

Fifth-ranked Tennessee (18-6) faces No. 26 Wake Forest (17-5) in the other first round match Saturday at 1 p.m. with the two winners advancing to Sunday's 1 p.m. second round match. The Knoxville regional is one of 16 in the 64-team event with regional winners advancing to the NCAA "Sweet 16" in College Station, Tex. on May 18-21. The individual competition will follow the team competition on May 22-27.

Tech (16-7), ranked 39th in the latest Omni Hotels/Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, finished third in the BIG EAST Championship on April 20 with a 4-0 shutout over Rutgers in the third-place match. The Hokies have won 11 of their last 14 matches including wins over nationally-ranked Charlotte, Rice and Virginia Commonwealth. Tech made five consecutive NCAA appearances by winning the Atlantic 10 championship every year while in the league but missed the event following a third-place finish in last year's BIG EAST tournament.

Tech is led by Saber Kadiri (Jr., Algiers, Algeria), No. 70 in the latest national rankings, who has posted a 27-15 record this season playing at the top of the line-up. Kadiri won the ITA EAST Region tournament in the fall and advanced to the National Indoors in Dallas, Tex. last November.

Also playing well for the Hokies is Francis Huot (Jr., Quebec City, Canada) who is 20-9 on the year playing primarily at the No. 2 position. Davor Dupljak (Sr., Karlovac, Croatia) is 22-16 this season while Stephane Rod (Fr., Lausanne, Switzerland) has been a pleasant surprise with a 25-12 worksheet in singles and has teamed with Andreas Laulund (So., Odense, Denmark) to post a 16-2 record in doubles competition.

Tech made five consecutive NCAA appearances prior to last year by winning the Atlantic 10 tournament in each of the Hokies' five years in the league. Tech advanced to the NCAA "Sweet Sixteen" in 1999 with 4-3 wins over No. 21 Virginia Commonwealth and No. 16 Alabama in the first two rounds of the tournament which were hosted by the Hokies at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center on the Virginia Tech campus. Tech advanced to Athens, Ga. where the dream season came to an end in a 4-1 loss to No. 1 UCLA.

The Hokies last appearance in the tournament occurred in 2000 when Tech was ousted by No. 13 Mississippi in the first round which was also played in Blacksburg.